Ticket registering machine



July 15, 194?. J. ROSE TICKET REGISTERING MACHINE FiledFe b. 18, 19:58 2 Sheets-$het 1 A y ROSE INVENTOR ATTORNEY July 15, 1941.

J. ROSE TICKET REGISTERING MACHINE Filed Feb. 1a, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Jay R055- INVENTOR Muir ATTORNEY Patented July 15, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE TICKET REGISTERING MACHINE Jay Rose, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Application February 18, 1938, Serial No. 191,130

2 Claims.

My invention relates to ticket registering machines and has particular reference to machines for recording theater admission tickets.

This is a continuation in part of my application Serial No. 105,725, filed Oct. 15, 1936.

The object of my invention is to provide a machine for registering tickets collected upon admission to a theater, canceling these tickets at the same time. separately recording tickets of different Values.

Another object of my invention is to provide a machine for registering tickets of full or standard size only so that it will be impossible to register the same ticket twice by tearing it apart and sending each half separately through the machine.

Another object of my invention is to provide means for pulling short tickets through the guide in the machine in order to prevent clogging of the guide or the machine with such short or torn tickets, means being also provided to prevent registering of such short tickets. I accomplish this by adding supplementary rolls between the main pulling rolls, the supplementary rolls being adapted to pull short tickets through the guide. For registering the full size tickets I provide two sets of contacts at a distance fromeach other, connected in series with electric counters and a source of current, the contacts being spaced so as to close the circuit only when both sets are raised by a sufficiently long ticket, the short ticket being able to raise or close only one contact element at a time thereby keeping the circuit open.

Another object of my invention is to provide means to register every ticket individually when a series of tickets form a strip, the tickets being separated by holes in the strip.

Another object of my invention is to provide means to prevent the possibility of registering short tickets when they are passed on the end of a strip of tickets. For this purpose I provide a photoelectric device actuated by a light which can. be shut off only by a ticket of the full size. This photoelectric device operates in conjunction with my double contact recording arrangement, but as a modification the photoelectric device can be used without the contacts, directly with the canceling rolls.

My invention is more fully described in the accompanying specification and drawings in which- Fig. 1 is a sectional elevational View of my machine.

Fig. 2 is an end View of the same partly in section.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view of the contacts and electrical connections.

Fig. 4 is a detail view of an upper contact.

Fig. 5 is a detail view of lower contacts.

Fig. 6 is a sectional elevation of a modified machine.

Fig. '7 is a top plan view with the cover removed.

Fig. 8 is a diagram of electrical connections for the machine shown in Figs. 6 and 7.

Fig. 9 is a diagrammatic view of a modified machine.

Fig. 10 is another view of the same.

Fig. 11 is a detail view of the drive gears.

My ticket registering and canceling machine consists of a number of units for tickets of different values, one such unit being shown in Figs. 1 and 2. It consists of a guide I with a slot 2 for tickets 3. The guide is clamped between bracket plates 4 by threaded studs 5 with spacing tubes 6. The brackets are supported on a shelf 1 in a housing 8. A cover 9 is provided on top of the housing with a slot It) for the tickets.

A window II is provided for an electromagnetic counter or recorder [2. The guide I has slots l3 for rollers I4 mounted on shafts l5 with spacing bushings I6. Gears I! are mounted on the ends of the shafts. the upper pair of gears being in mesh with each other, the lower gears also meshing with each other. The rolls are placed so that they touch the edge portions of the tickets, the middle portions being engaged by smallerintermediate rolls IS on shafts I9. Gears are mounted on the ends of the shafts l9 and are in mesh with each other. All three gears on one side of the guide I are in mesh with a driving gear 2| mounted on a drive shaft 22 having a gear 23' connected with a motor 22' by a chain 2|. One of the intermediate rolls has sharp projections 23 entering corresponding holes or depressions 24 in the other roll for punching holes in the ticket thereby canceling them. A tray or pan 25 is placed in the lower portion of the machine for collecting the canceled tickets. A slot 25 is provided in one side of the guide for an elbow portion of a contact spring 21 supported on an insulation post 28 fastened by a screw 29 to the guide. The same screw supports also a second contact spring 30. The contact springs have points 3! at the ends adapted to touch each other when the spring 21 is raised by a ticket passing through the slot 2 in the guide as shown in Fig. 3. The contacts are opened when there is no ticket in the slot as shown in Fig. 1, the elbow of the spring resting on an insulation block or insert 32 in the guide. The elbow of the spring 21 is sufiiciently wide to cover the holes 33 in the tickets, these holes separating one ticket from the other. The tickets are torn across these holes when sold singly and they also serve to separate the tickets when they are sold in strips of several tickets in a strip.

A second slot 34 is provided in the guide for contact springs 35 and 36 supported on an insulation post 31 with a contact spring 38 fastended to the guide by a screw 39. The springs 35 and 36 have elbows resting on an insulation insert 43 in the guide. Each spring has a contact point 4|, the springs remaining disconnected at the contact points when the elbows rest on the insert or when both springs are raised by the thickness of a ticket passing through the slot 2. In the latter case the springs 36 and 38 touch each other by their contact points 42, closing he circuit. The elbow of the spring 36 is narrow and sharp so that it enters the hole 33, disconnecting the points 42. The elbow of the springs 35, however, is flattened in the vertical direction and is placed below the elbow of the spring 35 so that it is not aiiected by the holes 33. The Contact points 4| become therefore closed when the sharp elbow of the spring 36 drops into a hole 33 while the flat elbow of the spring 35 rides on the ticket below the hole. At the end of a ticket or a strip of tickets, however, both elbows drop on the insert 40 and after that the points, having been momentarily closed remain disconnected. The outer springs 33 and 38 are shown curved in Fig. 1 to avoid interference with the bushings l6.

Distance between the elbows of the upper and lower springs is smaller than the length of a ticket so that the latter raises both springs during its passage through the guide thereby closing both sets of contact points 3| and 42. These points are connected in series with the main supply circuit 43 by leads 44, 45, 46 and 41, with a magnetic counting or registering device I2 included in the leads 45 and 41. The spring 35 is connected by a lead 48 to a lamp 49 which is connected by a lead 53 with the supply circuit 43. The lamp 43 is placed in a shielding tube A photocell or phototube 52 is placed in a shielding tube 53 opposite the lamp 49. The tubes are made so that the ticket completely shields the phototube from the lamp at the time when the last hole 33 comes under the elbow of the spring 33. The phototube is connected with an ordinary amplifier 54 and a relay 55. the latter closing the circuit for the counter I2 through leads 4?. E7, the switch .9, leads 45, 56, contact points 3| between the springs 33 and 21. and the lead 4 Leads 59 connect the amplifier tubes with the supply circuit 43. The lamp 49 may be directly connected with the line 43 by a switch 66 in a lead 6|.

The operation of my machine is as follows.

Tickets taken for admission to the theater are deposited in the slot [0 and are picked up by continuously rotating rolls M. The upper rolls move the tickets under the spring 21 thereby closing the contact points 3|. The circuit through the counter 48 remains open, however, until the intermediate rolls 23 bring the ticket under the spring 36 thereby closing the second set of contact points 42. During the time when the ticket is under both springs 21 and 36, the circuit remains closed through the counter 48 so that the latter registers one ticket. It is evident that a torn or otherwise shortened ticket will not be registered as it will not engage simultaneously the upper and lower springs. When a single ticket passes through the guide, both springs and 36 become raised and lowered one after the other by a hole 33. The lamp 49 will not be lighted, however, when the ticket passes under the springs 35 and 36 because the spring 36 will be raised first. When the ticket emerges from under the springs, it will cover the light 49 so that the latter will not energize the photocell so that the circuit for the lamp 43 remains open.

When a strip of several tickets passes through the rolls, the spring 36 enters by its elbow every hole 33 thereby opening the circuit at 42 and closing at 4| as many times as there are holes in the strip thereby registering every ticket in the strip. The spring 35 slides with its wide elbow over the holes and does not register them, breaking the circuit only when the end of the strip or ticket is reached. It is evident that a short ticket on the rear end of the strip will not be registered since the circuit will be broken at 3| before the lower spring reaches the last hole 33.

Every time the elbow of tile spring 36 drops into a hole 33, the circuit is closed between the points 4| causing the lamp 43 to flash while the lamp 51 is extinguished. The photoceil 52 is screened, however, from this lamp by the ticket emerging from the lower end of the guide, provided the ticket is of a standard full length. A short or torn ticket will not screen the light when the hole 33 reaches the spring 36 so that the photocell will be energized, short circuiting the springs 36 and 38 by the relay while the points 42 are separated by the elbow of the spring 36 falling into the hole 33, thereby preventing interruption of the current through the counter magnet. Relay 55 remains open when springs 36 or 35 are deflected by the ticket, distance from the beam of light through the tube 53 to the elbow 33 being smaller than the length of a full ticket. For a rapid operation of the device it may be desirable to connect the lamp 49 in the circuit continuously by closing the switch 63. The inductance and inertia of the relay 55 should be lower than of the relay in the counter l2 in order to prevent the letter from operating before the relay 55 has acted. The leads 59 must be continuously in circuit if amplifier tubes are employed with the phototube 52.

A modified arrangement is shown in Figs. 5, 7 and 8. Here the shafts iii are placed in bearings 62 sliding in brackets and pressed against the ticket with their rolls M by fiat springs 64. The middle portions of the springs rest against adjusting screws 65 threaded in a plate 65. The latter is curved as shown and supports contactor boxes 6? and 68. Contacts in the box 61 are operated by a plunger 69 resting against one end of the spring 64 and are closed when the bearing 62 is raised by the thickness of a ticket passing between the rolls M. The contacts of the contactor 68 are closed by a plunger 13 sliding by its inner end over the ticket, the contacts being disconnected when the end of the plunger falls into a hole 33. The end of the plunger I0 is so curved that the curvature rises above the edge of the ticket at the hole so that the plunger is pushed out by the edge of the ticket at the hole when the ticket is moved.

The plunger 10 operates the contactor 68 through a lever TI on a pivot 12 and is pressed against the ticket by a spring 13,

Another modification is shown in Figs. 9 and 10. The lamp 49 and phototube 52 are placed in a closed box 14 with ribs 15 forming channels 16 at the sides for guiding the edges of tickets falling from the pulling rolls l4 and I8. The light from the lamp 49 is completely shut off by the tubular guide formed by the channels and by the ticket in the channels, but only if the ticket is of standard or full length extending from one end of the channel to the other.

The amplifier 54 and relay 55 may be of any ordinary construction, such as, for instance, are manufactured by the General Electric Company. A suitable unit, comprising a phototube, relay and amplifier, is designated in trade CR505-A made by the General Electric Company, or '7505-A100 of the same company. It can operate the counter at a speed of one tenth of a second for every stroke.

I claim as my invention:

1. A ticket registering machine comprising a ticket guide, means to pull tickets including strips of tickets separated by holes through the guide, an electric counter for the tickets, a pair of contact points at the upper portion of the guide, resilient members supporting the contact points normally keeping the points separated, one of said members being adapted to slidably engage a ticket passing through the guide, and to be raised by the ticket for closing the contact points, the sliding member being Wider than the holes between the tickets, a second pair of contact points at the lower portion of the guide, resilient members supporting the second contact points adapted to keep the points separated, one of the lower members being adapted to slide over the ticket in the guide, thereby closing the lower contact points and being adapted to enter the holes between the tickets for disconnecting the lower contact points, a circuit including in series the counter, upper and lower pairs of contact points and a source of electric current, means to close the circuit by a ticket engaging by its ends the two sliding members, the circuit remaining open when a shortened ticket passes through the guide, a photocell at the lower end of the guide, an electric lamp to illuminate the photocell, the photocell being adapted to be screened from the lamp by a full length ticket emerging from the guide, a relay in the circuit of the counter, and means to energize the relay by the photocell, to keep the counter circuit closed when the hole between the first and second tickets at the front end of a strip of tickets receives the lower sliding member and if the first ticket is of a substantially shortened length unable to screen the photocell from the light.

2. A ticket registering machine comprising a ticket guide, means to pull tickets including strips of tickets separated by holes through the guide, an electric counter for the tickets, a pair of contact points at the upper portion of the guide, resilient members supporting the contact points normally keeping the points separated, one of said members being adapted to slidably engage a ticket passing through the guide, and to be raised by the ticket for closing the contact points, the sliding member being wider than the holes between the tickets, a second pair of contact points at the lower portion of the guide, resilient members supporting the second contact points adapted to keep the points separated, one of the lower members being adapted to slide over the ticket in the guide, thereby closing the lower contact points and being adapted to enter th holes between the tickets for disconnecting the lower contact points, a circuit including in series the counter, upper and lower pairs of contact points and a source of electric current, means to close the circuit by a ticket engaging by its ends the two sliding members, the circuit remaining open when a shortened ticket passes through the guide, a photocell at the lower end of the guide, an electric lamp to illuminate the photocell, the photocell being adapted to be screened from the lamp by a full length ticket emerging from the guide, a relay in the circuit of the counter, means to energize the relay by the photocell, to keep the counter circuit closed when the hole between the first and second tickets at the front end of a strip of tickets receives the lower sliding member and if the first ticket is of a substantially shortened length unable to screen the photocell from the light, a supplementary sliding member at the lower end of the guide, and means to close the circuit for the lamp by the supplementary member when the lower member enters a hole between the tickets.

JAY ROSE. 

